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Backpedaller

Spinning is fixed-wheel, single-gear indoor cycling, which sounds boring but I can't recommend it too highly. Being in a gym full of exercise bikes is like being in a stationary peloton. Alongside you is everyone from ironman triathletes to flabby desk jockeys, all hammering away on equipment that consists of no more than a heavy flywheel and pedals.

Spinning was invented as a poor-weather training technique in Los Angeles (where else) by a cyclist preparing for the 3,000-mile Race Across America. It was the fitness phenomenon of the 1990s in the US, and is still enormous in LA, which is where I got sucked in during a working trip when I was finding it hard to fit exercise into my day.

Despite the relentless sunshine, LA is a car town and road running is a miserable mix of smog, concrete and funny looks - nobody walks in LA.